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    Doctor Who - Season Twelve
    Doctor Who - Season Twelve
    Doctor Who - Season Twelve
    Ebook106 pages1 hour

    Doctor Who - Season Twelve

    By Ben Ballard

    ()

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    About this ebook

    The Chris Chibnall era of Doctor Who has been divisive indeed with plunging ratings and a failure to connect with casual audiences. Even Doctor Who fans seem divided. Was series twelve a return to form after the lacklustre season eleven? Was Chibnall's attempt to lace Doctor Who with a lore shattering story arc a success or a failure? Let's take a look at season twelve and see what worked and what didn't.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBen Ballard
    Release dateJun 10, 2020
    ISBN9781393816188
    Doctor Who - Season Twelve

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      Book preview

      Doctor Who - Season Twelve - Ben Ballard

      Doctor Who - Season Twelve

      by Ben Ballard

      © 2020 Ben Ballard

      ––––––––

      Contents

      Notes On Series Twelve - Has It Improved?

      Spyfall, Part 1

      Spyfall, Part 2

      Orphan 55

      Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror

      Fugitive of the Judoon

      Praxeus

      Can You Hear Me?

      The Haunting of Villa Diodati

      Ascension of the Cybermen

      The Timeless Children

      Final Thoughts On Series Twelve

      ––––––––

      NOTES ON SERIES TWELVE - HAS IT IMPROVED?

      After the underwhelming and lacklustre nature of series eleven of Doctor Who, it was hoped that some very big changes would be made for series twelve. The showrunner and lead writer Chris Chibnall has said more than once that he doesn't read any reviews or articles about the show and prefers to write Doctor Who in isolation inside his own little bubble. That's fair enough because he has do his own thing and you'd hardly expect him to spend his evenings on Gallifrey Base reading endless complaints about his version of the show. I'm sure he has far better things to do with his time. However, he could hardly have failed to notice the considerable slide in viewing figures throughout series eleven. In Britain, 10.6 million people watched The Woman Who Fell to Earth. By the time of the tedious finale The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, the viewing figures were 6.6 million.

      This trend would get worse in series twelve. The series twelve finale The Timeless Children drew only 4.6 million viewers - the worst figures since the show came back in 2005. Clearly, for whatever reason, Chris Chibnall's version of Doctor Who has not connected with a casual audience in the way that Chibnall and the BBC might have hoped. Yes, there are some possible mitigating circumstances - like the advent of YouTube, streaming, catch-up, and people simply not watching traditional 'live' television in the same way that they used to. Technology is rapidly changing the way that we consume television or entertain ourselves. However, series twelve was broadcast in the winter during a number of wild storms in Britain when there wasn't much else to do but batten down the hatches, stay inside, and watch television! One would think this would be the ideal circumstances for high viewing figures. This wasn't like a Capaldi season thrown to the wolves in summer (when people go out a lot more) and up against big live sporting events.

      The shows placed around Doctor Who season twelve on the BBC's Sunday night schedule, like Country File and Call the Midwife, actually beat Doctor Who in the ratings. Embarrassingly, it was even speculated that Doctor Who's dismal viewing figures were artificially inflated by impatient Call the Midwife fans tuning in at the end to see if Doctor Who had ended yet! I am really not a fan of Doctor Who being broadcast on Sunday nights. Sunday is a night when kids are doing homework and there are less likely to be more catch-ups on a Monday than Sunday. Doctor Who doesn't feel like a Sunday evening show. It feels like a loss of prestige to move from Saturday. Sunday evening and New Year's Day don't feel right. Doctor Who should always be Saturday and Christmas Day.

      It's hard not to think that a lot of the damage for this slide in ratings was done in series eleven. Viewers were understandably curious to see the first female Doctor at the start of series eleven but once this curiosity had been sated they found a show hardly worthy of their time (especially in an era when there are so many new sci-fi and fantasy shows jostling for our attention). Series eleven was flat and dull. The main cast (with the exception of the venerable Bradley Walsh) all seemed out of their depth. They had no charisma or chemistry with one another. The foundations of any good TV show are casting and the characters. Chris Chibnall miscast three of the new TARDIS team (Jodi Whittaker, Mandip Gill, and Tosin Cole, with respect, are not what you would describe as talented or charismatic actors - at least not on the evidence of their work in Doctor Who) and his scripts made the Doctor, Yaz, and Ryan instantly forgettable into the bargain.

      Series eleven made a mildly interesting if patchy start but then sank without trace after the abysmal one-two punch of Arachnids in the UK and The Tsuranga Conundrum (surely two of the worst episodes of Doctor Who ever made). While series eleven never quite got this bad again it wasn't much good either. Episodes like Demons of the Punjab, Kerblam!, and The Witchfinders were just bland and forgettable. They never really grabbed your attention or contained anything that would make you want to return. By the time of The abysmal Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, no one really cared anymore. Chris Chiball had somehow squandered all the goodwill and curiosity that greeted the arrival of series eleven.

      Hopes and exceptions were so high when The Woman Who Fell To Earth neared its premiere and it was deflating and depressing indeed that series eleven proved to be so tepid and disappointing.

      It is obvious that the only way to reactivate interest in Doctor Who is another fresh start. The show receives a curiosity spike from a new Doctor. Chris Chibnall and Jodi Whittaker got that curiosity spike with The Woman Who Fell to Earth but they gradually lost it by producing a mediocre show that wasn't compelling enough to maintain its audience. There are lifelong Doctor Who fans who bailed out during season eleven let alone casual viewers! The next showrunner has to produce a show that is consistently (and immediately) interesting and compelling enough to maintain more of the initial viewers dragged in by the 'curiosity spike'. Chris Chibnall simply failed to do that. I do not blame anyone who lost interest in Doctor Who during series eleven. Like many Doctor Who fans, I was dismayed and shocked at how bad series eleven was when it finally hit the screen. Moffat and Davies might have stretched our patience at times and dropped the odd duff episode but they never served up constant unrelenting mediocrity in the way that series eleven did. Even their worst scripts were festooned with more wit, imagination, and subtlety than anything to drop from the pen of Chris Chibnall in series eleven.

      Anyway, what about series twelve? Is it better? Has Chris Chibnall learned any lessons? Well, yes and no, but often yes. Although Chris Chibnall asserts that he avoids reading anything about Doctor Who, series twelve definitely feels like a reaction to series eleven. It almost feels like Chibnall studied the most salient criticisms of series eleven and made some changes. Series twelve is better than series eleven. There are a couple of two-parters, the return of the 'cold open', returning villains, returning characters (as we'll see in Fugitive of the Judoon), and an arc. You even get a big two part finale. Of the ten episodes in series twelve, four are good, two are passable enough, and four are duds. That's patchy but still a considerable improvement over series eleven where - The Woman Who Fell to Earth aside - all of the episodes were either boring or atrocious.

      The best thing about series twelve is that stuff happens. It sounds obvious and stupid I know but it's true. Stuff HAPPENS. In series eleven nothing happened. There is more stuff to react to in Spyfall or Fugitive of the Judoon than the whole of series eleven put together. The return of an arc is welcome too. You might not like where Chibnall ultimately goes with this arc but at least there is one. We have a reason to keep watching. The writing got a mild shake-up too with Nina Metivier, Maxine Alderton and Charlene James all becoming contributors. Maxine Alderton in particular was a welcome addition.

      Even the TARDIS interior (which was hideous in series eleven) looks better in series twelve. The vast checklist of things in series eleven that we complained about (like the lack of an arc, no high stakes, dull stand-alone episodes, no returning villains or characters) has been noted. An effort has been made to make the show better and more compelling with bigger stakes and a sense of danger for the characters. There are plenty of big guest stars like Stephen and Fry and Goran Višnjić and a couple of surprise ones too. Series twelve is not a home run but you can see that everyone tried to raise their game and make it better. There is a lot of effort on show here - especially in the two-part Spyfall openers. These episodes feel more like a big finale than a premiere and that's exactly what Chris Chibnall's Who needed. We appreciate the effort. Series twelve is inconsistent but it is much better than season eleven.

      What about the clunky social messages of Chris Chibnall's Who? Has the obvious politics been toned down? To a degree although it is surely not a coincidence

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